Voided Future
by monsterxmonster
Summary: This is a twist on the story of Rick.  What if there was someone at the hospital when Rick woke up?  What if Rick never achieved the hero status that we all come to love and admire?  Rated M for language, gore, and maybe more later.  Rick/OC
1. Chapter 1

_Entry 1_

_So this isn't a diary or journal or anything like that. Call it anything but that. It's more so a way to keep myself sane. To keep the brain juices flowing. Or just a way to keep a record of what is going on right now. To try to make sense of all that has happened. _

_Also it's a way to keep me sane._

"Wait, I already wrote that." Amber whispered.

Obliviously this isn't going as planned. Amber sighed as she started to scribble over the last sentence she had written. She placed her handmade notepad on the table and got up to stretch. This was the second day of her stay at the abandoned hospital and already she was regretting her choice of shelter. There was very little supplies here and with the amount of walkers outside, she feared that she would have to move on soon.

The only thing that was stopping her was the fact that there was another person here. Another living, breathing human. This was the first person that she had encountered since she had to leave the dorms. The bad part was that he was in a coma and she wasn't sure when or if he was coming out of it. Just thinking of leaving made the pains of guilt set in. Amber knew she couldn't leave this guy here for those… things to find. He'd be like a tv dinner for them.

His name was Rick. He still had his hospital ID bracelet on. He looked to be in his early thirties. Other than those few things, she really had no clue on anything about him. Either someone really loved him or really hated him to leave him here like this, she thought.

_I really don't know or understand what is going on right now. You could call it the end of days or a virus or an apocalypse. I just call it hell._

_People are out there killing each other. People are out there eating each other. If you can even call them people anymore. _

_I saw a dead man come back after getting shot five times in the chest. I've seen a man walking around with his intestines falling out of his stomach. I've seen a group of them… eating a little girl. She was screaming as they tore her body into pieces. I wanted to help, to scream out, to ease her pain… but I couldn't. I was scared shitless and just watched it happen. I had to hold back my vomit and tears because I didn't want to be the next course. _

_I don't know how or why this is happening. I just know that I need to survive. Before all this I was just a silly little college student with hopes and dreams of becoming a nurse in order to help people and make the world a better place. But from the looks of it, I'm a little bit late. Too bad fate has a way of fucking up your plans._

Amber stopped writing when she heard the muffled moans coming from outside of the barricaded doors. She mumbled a little prayer and then went into Rick's room and locked the door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay so I feel like a jerk! Sorry I didn't update sooner. New job, lack of internet and other things got in the way. I will be updating weekly hopefully! It will be getting interesting shortly, so stick around.

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><p><em>Entry 2<em>

_You know what the worse thing is about the end of the world?_

_You still have to work._

_Or at least some of us have to._

_Or maybe it's just me. I really don't know how many people … well living, breathing people… are left out here. Or even the world._

_This is my third day here at the hospital and I made it my "job" to take care of Rick till he wakes._

_If he ever wakes._

"Way to sound morbid…." Amber muttered to herself.

_He's lucky I was the one to break in and not those monsters outside. Not that anyone could be considered lucky in this day and age. I'm using what little knowledge I've retained from nursing school and from my job I had at the retirement home. So I know how to treat and care for him, but I have no clue how to wake him. I can tell that the bandage covering his side is from a wound but definitely not a bite… he'd be… turned by now. He's a fighter, so I hope he'll win the battle against whatever it is that is keeping him from waking._

_Earlier, before I clocked my 'work hours,' I did my daily workout. When there's no Netflix, no TV, no video games, you have to do something to keep both your body and mind healthy. Thus the workouts._

_Every time that I can or have the means to I find a way to workout. I run, do pushups, do sit-ups, mainly whatever I can find to do I will do. This might seem silly to some but I'll do anything in order to keep as much distance between myself and them. Plus it will keep my mind off the questions that are always plaguing my brain. What caused this? Why here? Why now? Are there others out there? Is this happening everywhere? No one knows what caused this whole thing. It happened all of a sudden, which leaves all these questions unanswered and open-ended. Anything or anyone could've caused it. It could be a virus, it could be the government, or even the end of days if you believe in God._

_First there were the news reports of insane people attacking others in broad daylight. No cause. No reason. Then there were numerous cases of people going to the ER complaining of high fevers, headaches, chills, and stomach pains. With more reports of sicknesses there came even more reports of attacks and so on. It got to the point where the new reporters were telling us to stay calm and inside, don't try to contact anyone or go to the store or even go to work. Then there was no news, just an annoying beeping sound with a standard warning screen on all the channels. And then even that cut out… then there was no radio and the phone wouldn't work. And then the power went out._

_There was only a few of us left in the dorms when the power went out. Most of them decided to stay, but I had a feeling in my gut that this meant it was time to leave. At first I was going to try to get home to see if my parents were still alive, but lack of a vehicle caused me to make other choices. I was doing fine until I got stupid and ran into a group of those things. I was able to outrun them and find this place. Managed to run up the stairs and luckily I was small enough to slip through the chained doors to this floor. There were some dead bodies here, not turned, just corpses with the majority of their flesh ripped and shredded._

Amber put down her pen when she heard some movement and noises coming from Rick's room.

"Shane?"

Amber heard more rustling and then a loud thud. She rushed over to the room to see Rick flaying on the ground, looking for something to grab onto. Amber went over to Rick and grabbed him off the cold floor.

"Where am I? ... Is... Is Lori here?" Rick began asking questions a mile a minute. He was still out of it and trying to get his bearings.

"No, no one is here right now. You're in the hospital. I think you were shot or stabbed... I really don't know why you are here or what's going on."

"Can you get the nurse to call my wife? Just tell her to bring Carl. I just need her here now. Please."

Amber bit her lip, trying to figure out how to explain to this man that the world that he knew was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

"Is this some sort of sick joke? Is this funny to you? To tell a stranger that his whole family is dead? That… this doesn't make any sense. I don't know who you are or why you are here. But please get out. Please just leave."

"Please understand that I am serious about this. What would I have to gain by harassing random patients at a hospital? I can understand that this is a lot to take in right now, but trust me… I wish I was joking." Amber responded. 

Rick got up from the side of the bed and walked over to the window to look outside. The sun was so bright and warm. He looked around, squinting from the sun shining in his eyes. He saw what looked to be some sort of military encampment, full of tents and vehicles, but it appeared to be abandoned. In fact he didn't see anyone walking around. The whole area looked dead.

"Where is everybody?" Rick spoke softly. 

"I. I don't know. If I knew, I'd be there instead of here." 

Rick walked back over to the bed and sat down. He hunched over and covered his face with his hands. Amber heard a soft whimper from Rick, but she wasn't sure on how to comfort him.

"Listen, I'm alone. Just like you. I'm just… I just…" Amber stops herself and begins to laugh. "I'm just so fucking scared right now. I'm scared of being alone. I'm scared of what's going on right now. I'm scared to go back outside alone. .. I'm scared to die."

Rick put his hands down and turned around to look at her. Here was a girl, a young girl, who needed more help than he did. Rick collected himself and got up from the bed. He turned around to face her.

"I need to leave here. I need to find my family." Rick said calmly.

"Please, just if you're gonna leave this place, let me come with you. You don't know how different things are outside. I can help you. I'm really good at helping. I'll go wherever you want to go. If you want, we could go to your house and see if, if maybe your family is still there." Amber had her back to him and was talking quietly into the doorway. She was looking at the ground and was trying to kick some dirt off of her shoe.

Rick walked over to Amber slowly. The cold floor felt good on his feet. It was a relaxing sensation that was almost necessary at this moment. Amber jumped when she felt Rick's hand on her shoulder. He muttered something so quiet that she couldn't really make out what he had said before he wandered into the bathroom and shut the door.

She went over to the door and knocked a few times. No answer. She called his name and asked him to come out or at least to open the door, but still there was no answer. For a moment she thought that she imagined him and that she was talking to herself. After a few minutes of this one-sided conversation, Amber decided to give up.

"I'll be out here when you're ready." She whispered into the door.

Amber moved the only chair in the room within inches of the door and made sure to have the chair facing it. She felt mentally exhausted from this whole incident, but decided to take out her journal and write a little bit before getting some much needed rest.

_Tomorrow we will set out for what I deem to be an impossible and probably heartbreaking journey. I hope for Rick's sake that we find his family alive. Honestly, I hope when I wake up tomorrow that this whole thing will just be a bad dream. We will see what tomorrow brings us.  
><em>

Rick sat on the toilet, staring at his reflection. He looked thinner and tired. It was like looking at a mockery of yourself. Once Rick heard no more movement coming from the room, he opened the door. He saw that the girl was curled up and asleep on the chair. He just stood there for a moment looking at her, still trying to piece together everything that he had just learned. He moved slowly and softly out of the room into the hallway. As he walked around he could only imagine the chaos that had ensued here. There were bullet holes in the walls. Light fixtures were broken and hanging out of the ceiling like broken teeth. Papers, trash, and pieces of the ceiling and walls littered the ground. It looked like a warzone. Or an execution site.

Further down the hallway, he came upon two doors sealed shut. They were the doors that would normally be used to separate the wings of a hospital floor from each other. This time it looked like it was used to keep something in. The doors had two windows, one for each side, that were caked with dried blood smears on the inside. Rick noticed that something was lying on the ground but he couldn't quite make out what it was. He inched forward slowly to get a better look. It was the body of a woman, a nurse, on the floor in front of him. Her face was facing towards him; her eyes were open and staring endlessly at him. Her body was skinned, open, exposed; all that was left was red meat and bones. Rick kept looking at her body, his mind screaming at him to stop and look away. He looked up again at her face and a moment of clarity set in. He knew her.

"Oh god… no"


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as light broke, Amber woke to an empty room. The bathroom door was open, but it was empty. She panicked and went out into the hallway calling Rick's name. She saw him by the sealed doors. He was hunched over, his sobs muffled by his hand. Amber rushed over to him and knelt down in order to put her arms around him.

"I didn't believe you…." Rick began rambling. "I … I couldn't. I just had to see it for myself."

"It's okay. It's okay. Shhh… How long have you been out here?"

"I dunno. A few minutes? A few hours? It feels like forever." 

Rick got up from off the ground and walked over to the doors. He motioned towards them, so Amber looked inside to see what he wanted her to see.

"You see that… body over there? She was the nurse who helped to deliver Carl. I think her name was Pat or Paula. Something that began with a P."

"Shhh... you have to keep it together. If you want to get out of here, we should do it while we have some daylight on us. Let's look around and see if there's any clothing that'll fit you. I'm sure the last thing you'd want to do is to be walking around half naked, am I right?" Amber said while throwing a sliver of a grin towards Rick.

"Heh. That's a good point. Thank you." Rick smiled back. "Thanks again, I really have no idea how to repay you for this."

Amber found some scrubs that looked to be a little too big for him, but bigger is always better than smaller. After Rick got dressed, they started on their way. Rick began to walk into the darken hallway, towards the doors on the other end of the floor. The doors were sealed shut with chains and had some writing on them. There were some small noises coming from behind them.

"Don't go that way. Trust me."

"Why?"

"Just don't. Trust me." 

They ended up going out through the stairwell. It was pitch black, so they had to touch the sides of the walls in order to guide themselves down the steps carefully. As they were walking down the steps, they were hit with the strong stench of rotting flesh. They had to cover their mouths as to not breathe in the smell. Once they got to the bottom, Rick used his hands to search for the doorknob. Once he found it, he let his hand hover over the knob with hesitation.

"What do you think is on the other side of these doors?" He muttered, mainly to himself.

As Rick slowly opened the door, both the bright sunlight and the decaying smell snuck in. The sunlight was blinding, which was a stark contrast from the darkness they had just came from. They had to focus their eyes to the ground in order to regain their composure. In several neatly arranged rows were bodies lying side by side and covered with white sheets. Some of the white sheets had bullet holes in them where blood had once seeped out of.

Both Rick and Amber stepped carefully through the rows of corpses, both afraid and confused by this project. They walked past the helicopter and all the unused vehicles scattered through out the small make-shift military base. The quiet was deafening. Neither of the two knew what to say and they weren't even sure if they should speak. They walked for a few miles, which felt like forever. No human, no animal, nothing was in sight until they came upon Rick's neighborhood. 

They were only a few houses away from Rick's house when a gurgling noise came from the ground directly to Rick's left. What was once a human was laid out in the grass, crawling and clawing inch by inch towards them. Upon further examination they noticed that her lower body was completely gone, only parts of her spine and her lower intestines were what was left down there. Her body was a dried up shell of itself, the skin all old and leathery. Her ribs and bones stuck out. Her lips and the skin surrounding her mouth were ripped off leaving her teeth exposed. Chunks of her hair were gone leaving only wisps of stringy mats on top of her head. The closer she dragged herself, the louder her gurgling and clanking teeth became. There was a lone bicycle next to her and it looked odd and out of place next to the naked and decaying corpse. If Rick had any food in his stomach, it would've sure been on the ground by now.

"We have to keep moving." It took Rick a moment to realize that those words had come from him.

"I know. How much further is it?" Rick kept walking without responding to Amber's question.

When they arrived to Rick's house, the front door was wide open. Nothing was taken; in fact everything seemed to be in its rightful place.

"Lori? Carl? Lori, are you here? It's me. I'm home now. Lori?" Rick started searching and calling out into all of the rooms. No answer. He stopped once he walked into the kitchen. On the floor and all over the kitchen table was old dried-up blood and bloody dirty rags. It looked like whoever caused this mess tried to clean up in the sink. There was no body anywhere, no footprints, and no sign of what happened and why the mess was there. 

"Oh no oh no no no no…. I'm too late. Oh god. I should've been here for them! Oh god no no no no…" 

"We don't know if it's from them or someone else. There's no body, it could've been from anything. The door was wide open, who knows who was here." Amber tried to find a logical explanation for this without destroying Rick right out.

"I told them Id always be there for them. I … I don't know what to do …"


End file.
